wine on the keyboard

retirement

Where do we go from here?

by Kay~Kacey on 4/23/2008

So SuperGuy and I talk about where we want to go when we retire. Where. What kind of place. Do we want to leave the cold and snow of the midwest and go some place warm? But most of our family is here in the midwest. We haven’t come to any decisions. (Except this winter was doing its darnedest to try and make me want to move some where sunny and warm!)

So we visited SuperGuy’s aunt at her new retirement community in Kansas. Santa Marta. We weren’t sure quite what to expect. Well, it was….well, see for yourself…

santa marta sitting area

The sitting area off the main entrance. Which leads to…

bar

this fabulous wooden bar area. Nice place to meet your friends before dinner for a quick drink. Then on to…

santa marta dining room

their gorgeous dining room. Yes, people cooking for you whenever you want. A certain amount for meals is included in your monthly fees. Okay, so they never did get one of our orders right while we were there, but they are friendly. The place is fairly new, so I figure they’ll get the kinks worked out of the food service. The food was good, even if the wine wasn’t. 😉 We have “white” or “red”. 🙄

There is also a lot of do there at Santa Marta.

pool table

SuperGuy liked this.

jigsaw puzzle table

I was glad they were feeding my jigsaw puzzle addiction here.

chess

They have a library with a fireplace. Chess. Newpapers. A computer. Lots of books you can borrow.

They have a pool, and exercise room, a place to get your hair done. They have a bank branch right inside the retirement center. They have a cleaning service to clean your apartment. :love:

They have apartments in the two main wings of the main area, as well as villas scattered around the property. They are just finishing up an assisted living facility, memory facility and skilled nursing area. The people working there are very friendly and nice.

The whole Santa Marta retirement center is a cross between a hacienda feel or a Tuscany feel.

roof lines

This was the view out our “guest suite” that they have available for people coming to visit.

courtyard

This was a courtyard, not finished yet, between two wings of the main building.

Well, SuperGuy and I aren’t ready to make any decision about what we’re going to do when we retire, but it was fun to see what one option on retirement is. We keep thinking we’ll find some nice little house with a bit of property, down south. We had talked about moving to Bay St. Louis in Mississippi near where SuperGuy had a small farm…but it basically got taken off the map in Katrina.

Do you ever think about what you want to do when you retire? Where you want to live? Have you looked into any areas?